Covid-19 and Fourth Industrial Revolution

Dr Mukul Chandra Bora

(drmukulcbora@gmail.com. He is Director, Dibrugarh University Institute of Engineering & Technology)

The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent declaration by the World Health Organization on 11th March 2020 as a Pandemic has created panic amongst all sections of the society and there was complete lockdown in the entire world. The virus was originating from Wuhan city of China and spread rapidly to Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States as it reached almost all the global communities. It was mentioned in different reports of all professions that a worldwide pandemic would strain the elements of the global supply chains and demands, thereby igniting a cross-border economic disaster because of the highly interconnected world. The virus has killed overkilled over 800,000 (2020) people worldwide and disrupted all the means of livelihoods, cost trillions of dollars and halt global business. To isolate the cases and limit the transmission rate of the virus, countries across the globe implemented stringent measures such as mandatory national lockdown and border closures which in turn shattered the core sustaining pillars of the world economy. Out of all these negative impacts like economic and business slowdown together with huge impacts on supply chain management due to COVID-19 pandemic, some of the good things have happened towards the Sustainable Development Goal 2030 (SDG 2030) and implementation of 4th Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0 in the world manufacturing and business sectors. The Industry 4.0 or 4th Industrial Revolution was conceived in the year 2011 and was aligned towards SDG 2030, but its real application is prominent till today. This pandemic has made us compelled to learn the Industry 4.0 technologies in another way and is a good beginning towards SDG 2030. The use of 21st-century knowledge or Industry 4.0 technology is quite visible due to the COVID pandemic. The Industry 4.0 or 21st-century skills are viz., 3D Printing is also known as Additive manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of things (IoT), Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality, Big Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, Robotics and Cyber Security. The details of these technologies and their application during the COVID-19 pandemic are also briefly discussed here to make an understanding that how we all the human population without much effort has got used to these 4th Industrial Revolution Technologies.

3D printing or additive manufacturing is the process in which instead of cutting any material to make the required components, it used the deposition technologies through computer-controlled devices which in turn gives us zero waste production system. Since 3D printing used layer by layer deposition of materials it allows greater flexibility and creativity in the design process. Any parts or components can completely be re-designed so that they are stronger in the areas that they need to be and lighter overall. 3D printing significantly speeds up the design and prototyping process and there is no problem with creating one part at a time and parts can be created within hours and bring down the design cycle to a few days or weeks. It is to be noted that 3D printing is not the answer to every type of production process but its advancement will help to accelerate the design and engineering process faster than ever before. The use of 3D printing technology is already used by Aviation Industry, electronic components manufacturers and above all it was during the COVID-19 pandemic to manufacture different materials used to control and treat the COVID patients.

The simple definition of Artificial Intelligence is the intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence shown by humans and other animals and some of the activities that it is designed to perform by AI are speech recognition, learning, planning and problem-solving. Since Robotics is the field concerned with the connection of perception to action, Artificial Intelligence must have a central role in Robotics if the connection is to be intelligent. Artificial Intelligence addresses the crucial questions of what knowledge is required in any aspect of thinking; how should that knowledge be represented; and how should that knowledge be used. Robotics challenges Artificial Intelligence by forcing it to deal with real objects in the real world. The use of AI presently in the different sectors are: i) Online shopping and advertising, ii) Web search, iii) Digital personal assistants, iv) Machine translations, v) Smart homes, cities and infrastructure, vi) Cars, vii) Cybersecurity, viii) Fighting disinformation, ix) Health, x) Intelligent Transport System, xi) Aviation Industry and above all in fighting COVID-19.

The use of AI in Covid-19 was visible in the process of thermal imaging at airports and other places together with a medicine which has helped a lot to estimate the amount of infection from computerised tomography (CT) scans of human lungs. Furthermore, it was also used to provide data to track the spread of the disease and pandemic. The use of Artificial Intelligence was found in forecasting the spread of novel coronavirus and also developing early warning systems by extracting information from social media platforms, calls and news sites and providing useful information about the vulnerable regions and for prediction of morbidity and mortality. AI was also used to determine contact tracing of patients with the help of mobile health applications used in smart devices like watches, mobile phones, cameras and a range of the wearable device. It is to be noted the fast development of the COVID-19 vaccine was only possible with the extensive use of AI and Machine Learning (ML). Numerous examples of the use of AI are found in every sphere of our modern-day life.

The use of Internet of Things (IoT) technology in developing nations allows fighting COVID-19 effectively and most importantly to accelerate the digitalisation of healthcare systems, plugging critical gaps in affordability, quality and access. It may be noted that the use of IoT could help to predict future pandemics, by using statistical-based methods and converging with artificial intelligence and big data beyond COVID-19. So the IoT may be a key player in healthcare transformation shortly, from a reactive to a proactive system.

Virtual reality may be defined as an artificial environment that is created with computer software and presented to the user in such a way that the user suspends belief and accepts it as a real environment and is sensed primarily with two senses of human being viz., sight and sound. The use of Virtual and Augmented reality was also found in COVID-19 pandemics for emergency management of disasters or diseases. Furthermore, it may be noted that the use of virtual reality is found to be in education too which are found in online classes as well as virtual laboratories. Virtual learning is a learning platform that is done through utilizing computers and/or the internet both outside and inside the facilities of the educational organization.

Big data may be defined as the set of large data which are difficult to manage and are comprised of structured and unstructured data sets. The analysis of this data requires different skills which are known as Big Data Analytics and are only possible through large scale computations in computers. Big data provides a massive amount of information to scientists, health professionals and epidemiologists and help to decide to fight with the COVID-19. The data generated may be used to track the virus on a global basis continuously and to create innovation required in the medical field. It can help to forecast the impact of COVID-19 in a particular area and the whole population. It helps in the research and development of new treatment procedures. Big data can also provide possible sources and opportunities for people and, thus, help to handle stressful situations. Overall, this technology provides data to undertake analysis of the disease transmission, movement, and health monitoring and prevention system.

In short, it has been observed that people across the globe has used the Industry 4.0 technologies to fight COVID-19 effectively and its extensive use has made all of us conversant with these technologies which were otherwise not possible for us to adopt by us so early. So the COVID-19 has become blessings if we consider it in terms of the 4th Industrial Revolution especially for developing countries like India. It is worth mentioning here that when the proper Information and Communication Technology (ICT) reach all the places of India, our country will not have any problem in terms of skilling the manpower required for Industry 4.0 compliment Industry and business houses. Sustainable manufacture or sustainable business is only possible with Industry 4.0 which is the use of ICT in manufacturing as well as other business houses. As the IR 4 will make it possible to control the manufacturing and business houses digitally, it will also reduce the travel and transportation costs of the workers working in different Industries. This was observed during pandemics and most software houses are still allowing their employees to work from home and thereby reducing the operation cost of the software industries. So although there 'was a lot of problem due to the COVID pandemic, it also acts as an opportunity for early implementation of Industry 4.0 in developing countries.